To Avoid More Snowdens, Obama Should Stop Spying and Assassinating, Says WikiLeaks Founder

Take care of your own house, Barry

The massive communications surveillance in which the United States and British governments (and possibly other states) are engaged are being overlooked in the international frenzy over Edward Snowden's flight for freedom, emphasized attorney Michael Ratner, for WikiLeaks, as well as the organizations's founder, Julian Assange, in a press call this morning. Ratner, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Assange and Wikileaks in the United States. He presented the legal case for Snowden's search for asylum, saying that  the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees protects whistleblowers (presumably under its protections for political refugees) and that, since no international arrest warrant exists for Snowden, the United States is relying on intimidating other countries into closing their borders to him. Assange emphasized that Snowden is no traitor, since he neither spied on behalf of nor "adhered" to enemies of the United States. …

If the Obama administration wants to curtail the flow of leakers, said Assange, it should stop spying on the world, end its policy of indefinite detention, stop its assassination program and cease invading other countries.